After five years, the board of governors at Hogwarts still wouldn't change the curriculum back to how it used to be. But Harry didn't want his daughter's education to suffer because of a decision he made years before she was born. He'd given James strict instructions to educate her on the important things she was missing in classes. James wasn't impressed about it, but he didn't have a choice, and reluctantly agreed. Now in fifth year, Lily got tuition from her brother at least once a week.

It had taken a while for James and Al to warm up to their sister again after she was sorted back in her first year. James didn't take long to trust her again, he realised that there was no way to change it and he had to stick by her – she was still his sister. And, the more he was around her, the less time she would spend around that little snake Scorpius Malfoy. And in James' world, that could only be a blessing. Al, however, took a little longer. He didn't have to see his sister anywhere around school, besides the Quidditch pitch, so he chose not to. Even though his dad had told him so many times that it would be okay if he was in Slytherin, he'd never told him it was okay for his siblings to be there. James didn't get that pep talk, and neither did Lily. Al was the only one his dad expected to be in Slytherin, and he wasn't. Why did Lily have to be any different? Why did she have to be so special? Spending her time around the Lestrange and Malfoy, she may as well have been nick-naming herself Wormtail – the one who abandons their roots and their friends. Even as he entered his sixth year, and his sister in her fifth, their relationship was not truly mended.

It was Thursday night when Lily Potter sat in the Quidditch stands with her friends. Annabelle Lestrange, Lily's best friend in the entire world; but everyone called her Bella. Greg Parkinson; he was adopted by his parents and he'd had a troubled life before then. He was definitely the dark horse of the group. Then there was Alex Abbott, who Lily had always found some comfort in. Both his parents had been in Hufflepuff, and it had been quite a shock when he was sorted into Slytherin. Alex had a somewhat bigger issue than that though, Alex was gay, and as of yet, he hadn't told his parents. And finally there was Scorpius Malfoy, who preferred being called Sam, for reasons best known to himself.

Greg sat with his arm casually around Bella, they weren't dating, but there was usually something going on. Lily felt slightly envious about their relationship, she didn't have anything like that. She didn't even have anyone she felt like that about! Sam caught her gaze, a look on his face that told her that he almost knew what she was thinking. But knowing Sam, he probably did.

'Deep thoughts?' He asked her quietly, moving a little closer to her.

'Maybe,' She sighed, staring out across the darkened Quidditch pitch. It was familiar to her, she spent most weeknights there doing Quidditch practice with the Slytherin team. Sam was on the team, too, he was the Seeker. Lily was a Chaser, but their Captain, Adam Flint, had it in his mind that she'd make a fantastic Keeper.

Lily felt hands on her shoulders as Alex leaned around her.

'Of course she's thinking deep thoughts,' He said. 'she always is.' He smiled. Lily reached behind her to ruffle Alex's hair. Sam smiled at the pair of them. He'd never see Alex in any other light than his friend, but he was his best friend through and through.

'Oh look,' Alex changed the topic glancing to the other side of the stands. 'it's Lily's hot brother.'

'Ew,' Lily muttered, as she saw James walking towards her. 'never say that again, Alex.'

'What? He is hot.'

Lily stood up. 'And completely not your type.' She smiled at Alex. He shrugged and leaned back, placing his hand on Sam's shoulder.

'You're my type, right, Sam?' He grinned at his friend.

'Of course.' Sam smirked.

'You guys freak me out sometimes.' Lily laughed at them, before making her way towards her brother. Sam and Alex were always like that, and that's what confused Lily. She knew they were best friends, and she was positive Sam was not gay. But it was moments like this when she just wondered if it was friendly banter or if he genuinely meant it.

'Lily,' James smiled at his sister and pulled her into a hug. 'you know you shouldn't be here, right?'

'And you know you're not a Prefect, right?' Lily reminded him, as her brother released her.

'I'm just warning you, if a real Prefect catches you guys out here, you'll be doing detentions all week.' He told her with a warm smile. His eyes flickered onto her friends, who were all continuing their conversations. Sam Malfoy happened to lock eye contact with James for a brief second, before his attention was snapped back by Alex touching his face. Sam started laughing and swatted his hand away.

'So, how's Malfoy?' James asked her. 'Gay yet?'

'Be nice, James,' Lily told him. 'Alex is paying you compliments, so play nice.'

James laughed. 'Is he now? What exactly did he say?' he asked, straightening his collar.

Lily grinned at him. 'He thinks you're hot.'

'Aww, well you can tell him I think he's pretty sexy, too.' James beamed at his sister and watched as she shook her head at him.

'Yeah, will do,' She laughed. 'so what brings you out here?'

'Just wanted to see if you were okay.'

'I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?'

James looked her in the eyes. 'Just making sure he's treating you right.'

He referred to Sam Malfoy. James and Sam had never seen eye to eye. After James had got used to his sister being in Slytherin, he'd slowly began to warm up to her friends, too. But the one person he refused to be open minded about was Sam Malfoy. He wasn't too impressed with Annabelle, but that was due to her family history, and James' parents didn't appear to have a problem with her. After all, she was related to Bellatrix, but not properly; Bellatrix was her great aunt. She couldn't really be that much like her. And besides, she was Lily's best friend. Alex was fine in James' books, he was an alright guy. James had never had a problem with Alex's sexual orientation, and never had a problem with his personality, but Lily suspected this was because he'd never heard Alex's surname in a history lesson.

'He always treats me fine, James.' Lily told him strongly.

'Well, just let me know if he doesn't.'

'I will,' Lily sighed. 'how's Albus?'

James paused for a moment. 'He's okay.'

'He keeps giving me evil looks whenever I see him… more so than usual.' She added.

James shook his head slowly. 'He's just… he's just on edge. He's taken new classes and he's got a tone of work and…'

'Don't cover for him. What's happened?'

'Nothing,' James assured her. 'ignore him. He'll stop it.'

'I'll see you tomorrow, James.' Lily told him, as she heard footsteps behind her. Bella grinned at her, barely acknowledging her brother's presence.

'I'm going back to the common room, Lily,' Bella told her. 'I think Sam's staying here. Alex probably is, but I don't know.'

'You can tell Alex he can come with me.' James said to her, as he and his sister burst out laughing.

'Am I missing something?' Bella asked, unable to stop herself smiling.

'No, that's me,' James grinned at her. Lily couldn't help but note that this was the first time James had actually smiled directly at Bella. 'Alex!' He called. Alex looked up and met his gaze. 'You're with me! C'mon!' James beckoned him over, and of course, Alex leapt up at the opportunity and followed James out of the stands.

'What's he doing?' Bella wondered out loud.

'Not a clue.' Lily answered.

'Well,' Bella snapped out of her momentary daze. 'as I was saying, we're going back to the Common Room. See you later,' She briefly gave her friend a hug before skipping out of a stands with Greg.

Lily sat herself back down next to Sam. He smiled at her.

'Everything alright?' He asked.

Lily nodded, not wanting to elaborate about what her brother wanted.

'Any particular reason James has… taken Alex?' Sam smirked at her.

'Do I detect a hint of jealousy?' Lily smiled back at him. Sam laughed and looked back out across the pitch.

'Nah,' Sam replied finally. 'Just wondering what interest James has with Alex. I mean, he's not gay… is he?'

'Not that I know of,' Lily grinned at Sam. 'but I don't know what's going through his mind half the time, Sam. I told him Alex said he was hot, and next thing he wants alone time. I don't know.' Lily laughed. Sam decided to leave it, clearly it didn't bother Lily. Although, she was somewhat right, he was jealous. But not because he wanted the 'alone time' with Alex, but because he could see James becoming better friends with everyone else, but he had some kind of grudge against Sam, and he couldn't work out what he'd done wrong.

'He doesn't like me very much, does he?' Sam sighed.

'What? He just…' Lily tried to think about a better way to phrase it, having just been put on the spot like that.

'Didn't think so.' Sam said once she'd paused. 'Why doesn't he like me?'

Lily shook her head. There was no point arguing. 'I don't know. I think it's just because of all that stuff with my parents and your dad when they were at school. I think James has just adopted that and brought it with him.' Lily tried her best to explain a situation she didn't really understand herself.

Sam nodded. He didn't want to bring up what else he was thinking, because he wasn't sure if Lily knew about it. He knew an awful lot about the Wizarding Wars. He couldn't explain the interest he had in it because it was probably an unhealthy interest. He couldn't take out the books at the library relating to these topics – Slytherins weren't allowed. But he'd read about them at home, because his parents didn't mind talking about it and they didn't mind him learning about it, if he wanted to.

'What are you thinking about?' Lily asked him, and when Sam turned to answer her, she seemed a lot closer than she had been previously. It took him a little bit by surprise.

'Just stuff,' he told her, his voice a lot quieter than he'd anticipated. Lily smiled at him, but it was a different kind of smile. He tried to smile back, but he wasn't sure if he'd quite managed it.

'That explains it very well.' Lily said.

'I… yeah sorry. Just zoned out, I guess.' Sam muttered.

'And that's why you're good at Divination and I'm not.' Lily told him with another one of those smiles. Sam couldn't help but smile back at her. She really was hopeless at Divination. Sam had somewhat of a natural talent for it. Their teacher wasn't really up to the job, Professor Brown was usually lost in her own girly world. Sam really had a knack for it, and he could predict a load of stuff. Usually insignificant things, but then again, he'd never say if he predicted something important. He could read people quite well, but he always said that was more psychology than Divination. He also had a go at reading palms and tea leaves, but they were long term things, and there was no way to tell if he was right yet.

'But you'll always be better than me at Potions.' Sam told her. Lily shrugged.

'Yeah, you could say that.' She smiled. Lily would never have said she had a natural talent at Potions, but Professor Belby thought she did. If she'd have had to pinpoint her strongest talent, it would have been Quidditch. By far. But then again, Sam was fairly good at that, too. They were both on the house Quidditch team, Sam played Seeker and Lily played Keeper. It sometimes got strange because Lily's brothers were both in the Gryffindor Quidditch team. James was the Captain, and the Seeker, but Albus was a Beater, and that was dangerous at the best of times. It was alright if he wasn't in such a bad mood with her, he'd ignore her then, but when he'd got something against her, he aimed straight for her every time he saw a Bludger. He'd only ever hit her once, so far, and it was only a graze.

'Are you playing next week then?' Sam asked her.

She nodded, then snapped out of her momentary daze. 'Sam don't do that.' She told him, realising he'd found out what she was thinking about.

He smirked. 'Just a guess, Lily. I always tell you this, I'm just good at guessing.'

Lily didn't reply, she simply gave him a warm smile and stared back across the pitch. Something felt different, she couldn't pinpoint what; there was a probably a storm coming. Sam followed her gaze, thinking the same thing; but about a more metaphorical storm.

'Something's changing,' He began with a sigh. 'I can feel it.' Lily looked at him, she couldn't deny she was intrigued now. 'You're right, there is a storm coming. But it's not a storm that's going to bring rain and thunder; it will bring darkness and hurt.' Lily felt like she wanted to cry. There was such depth in his voice, she'd never heard him speak with such indignation before. He truly meant what he was saying.

'Dark times are coming, Lily,' He turned to her. 'I don't want you to be dragged into this, but you're going to be. I can tell.'

'Dragged into what?' She couldn't help but inquire.

He shook his head. 'I can't say. It's something dark… evil. I'm not sure what.' He tried to explain it but gave up with a sigh. He had no idea what specifically was coming; he just knew it was.

'I won't get into anything evil, Sam… you know I won't.' She answered shakily.

He stared up at the sky, inwardly saying a prayer to a God he wasn't sure he believed in. 'Yes you will,' he turned to look her in the eyes. 'sometimes the people you trust the most, are the ones you should trust the least.'

'What?'

'Nothing,' Sam muttered. 'I don't know. That just came to me, I'm not sure what it means.'

'I guess it's not for you to decipher. That'll be for me to learn, right?' Lily told him with a sigh. She hated it when things were down to her.

He smiled weakly. 'Probably. You're learning, Lily.'

She returned his smile, but inside the last thing she wanted to do was smile.